Students and staff at St. Charles College had their throats blessed today to celebrate Saint Blaise’s feast day.
Blaise was a bishop and is the patron saint of wild animals and those with throat maladies.
Deacon Steve Callaghan also visited the vocals music class to bless the throats of those who have share their gift of singing.
Staff, students and families in the St. Andrew community enjoyed a beautiful Christmas Mass interspersed with beautiful song on Thursday December 18th. Father Sam opened his parish church of St. Andrew the Apostle to everyone so that we could enjoy our last Christmas Concert for St. Andrew School. The choir began the celebration by singing Rejoice and Sing the Good News and everyone did just that. The FDK children sang It’s Christmas Day, the SK/1 children sang Hush There’s a Baby, Grade 2 performed the Huron Carol, Grade 3/4 sang Drummer Boy and Mary Had a Baby and finally the Grades 4/5 and 5/6 classes joined voices to sing I Saw Three Ships and Something About Christmas. Pictured are the three Kings presenting gifts to the baby as the grade 2 class sang the Huron Carol.
The Christmas Spirit was in full bloom at Immaculate Conception School in December. Emily Lotter, Grade 1 and Morgan Bradley, Grade 4, teamed up to do something very special – cut their hair for cancer. The girls didn’t stop the “giving” with the donation of their hair. They also raised $1002.35 from the sale of their handmade angel ornaments to their school, families and many community organizations. The girls have each chosen Canadian organizations to donate their hair and money. Emily has chosen to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths and Pediatric Cancer Research and Morgan has chosen to donate to Angel Hair for Kids.
Many thanks go out to all who supported the girls. Immaculate Conception Cougars rock!
The annual Toy Drive at St. Benedict has concluded and they are happy to announce that they collected 859 toys and over $180.00 to be donated to the TD Bank Toy Caravan. These will in turn be given to the Salvation Army who will ensure that all those families will have a good Christmas.
The true meaning of Christmas recently came to life for all of the students and staff at St. Anne Catholic School in Hanmer. The entire school community came together to celebrate the coming birth of Jesus. Students from FDK to grade 8 participated in the celebration of Jesus’ birthday through prayer and dramatization. Some grade 7 and 8 students acted as a voice in the Nativity story, while students from Mme Trepanier’s FDK class provided a dramatization. “I thought it was really creative and a cute play to watch,” said Cole Hamilton, a grade 8 student at St. Anne Catholic School.
The FDK students were very pleased with their accomplishments, and were happy to display the biggest gift at Christmas: Jesus. “My favourite part was riding on the donkey (wagon). I was happy to be Mary,” said FDK student Makinley Bertrand. “I felt special being Joseph. I liked pulling the wagon and knocking on the door of the Inn,” said Gillis O’Daiskey, FDK student.
The Marymount Academy Catholic Charities Council has been hard at work again this year organizing our annual canned food drive for the “Edgar Burton, one more can campaign”. Once again the Regals have done a tremendous job collecting cans and money, their total this year was 10 200 cans! Way to go Regals!
More than one hundred staff and students from St. Charles College will cross the finish line tomorrow morning at Science North. They will be participating in the Santa Shuffle 5k race to support Salvation Army programs for children and families at Christmas time.
The students and staff raised more than 25-hundred dollars to help the campaign making them the largest student group to participate and the largest school donator to the cause.
They will also be running alongside a special guest. Kate Gustafson is a high ranking Canadian marathon runner. Gustafson motivated the students this morning (Friday, December 5th) at the cheque presentation at St. Charles College. She talked about how she trains 120 km./week. She said “running is a discipline that encourages a healthy balanced diet, time management skills. If you have a passion whether it be art or sport, running can be an amazing compliment to your life.”
Each year, the students at St. Charles College join forces with the students in their homeroom to help put gifts under the Christmas tree in a home somewhere in Sudbury.
Deacon Steve Callaghan organizes the campaign with the administrators working in the eight feeder schools – St. Bernadette, St. Andrew, St. John, Pius, St. Paul, St. Mark, St. David and St. Raphael. Deacon Steve says “The administrators at each of these schools know which family is in dire need of support and what life is like for them.”
After students are selected, the child writes a letter to Santa and each homeroom “adopts” one of the children. Money is then raised during the month in the mission envelope. All money is then given to a designated student on December 11th so that the shopping can be done.
Deacon Steve Callaghan then brings the wrapped gifts to the school principal on December 17th and 18th and the principal contacts the family for pick-up. He says, “When the principal and the secretary see us hauling in present after present – they are overwhelmed and often cry because of the generosity of our children.”
Staff at St. Francis elementary school displayed their Christmas spirit by filling more than 15 shoe boxes for a charity organization called Sisters Helping Sisters. This organization helps women across our community by providing many of the essentials needed for daily living. Items will be donated to women’s shelters within Sudbury. Way to go Flames!
